Long Time No Post

I have not been posting because I've been super busy/not cooking as much as usual. I have a few pics from recent adventures in the kitchen but I'm ashamed to say that it's been so long since I've messed around with food pics that I forgot what a few things were!



In any case, now that it's summer. I feel less like cooking and more like drinking. Maybe I should switch to posting about booze. I did make an amazing strawberry shortcake:


I hacked together some not vegan recipes from Food Network's site and veganized them. I also veganized Alton Brown's heavenly home made soft pretzels.



It hasn't been 100% booze and junk food however. I have been playing with my miso soup recipe


At what point is it no longer miso soup? It now includes lemongrass, ginger, spinach, shiitake and baked lemon pepper tofu.

I also made mini pizzas using giant portobello mushrooms instead of dough. I just washed these babies and scooped out the gills with a spoon. Sprayed with olive oil cooking spray and roasted 'em on both sides under the broiler until tender. Then I spooned on some tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella soy cheese. I topped it with some shredded basil from the garden and popped it back under the broiler to melt the cheese. Delicious!


About the soy cheese in my little low carb pizzas above: I used a soy cheese called Teese which is made in Chicago and available from Pangea. If you are a vegan YOU NEED THIS PRODUCT!!!! It melts, for real, better than FYH! We also made a lasagna with it.

Mmm Chocolate

Once a year I make like 100 chocolate truffles. I spend an entire day on them and make them with different flavored booze and roll them in fancy toppings. They make great holiday gifts for people who kinda already have everything (aka parents and other adult relatives) and people you have no idea how to shop for.

My truffles, are of course, vegan. I use this recipe which works so well that every non-vegan in your life will be pleased with the results. In fact, an omnivore foodie friend of mine who is into candy making actually traded in her truffle recipe for this vegan version several years ago because she was so much happier with the flavor and texture of these truffles than any other recipe she'd ever tried.

Here's a picture of my creations:

Thanksgiving Vegan Style

Usually we have a giant dinner party at our house for Thanksgiving. We cook up a huge vegan feast and all of our (mostly vegetarian) friends come over and we stuff ourselves and get drunk and have a terrific time. This year our presence was, well, demanded at my parents' house so we had to have our annual Thanksgiving dinner party early. It was a great time, albeit a bit hectic. The power company has a habit of fucking with our electricity around this time of year and we had a 13 hour outage that started as soon as I began cutting veggies for our meal the night before and lasted until about 2 hours before our guests arrived. As a result, we had to borrow a friend's kitchen in order to make this dinner happen. This was tough since the friend is a bachelor and has a kitchen you'd imagine a bachelor would have. It's not just ill-equipped, it's small and sort of in the process of being rehabbed. We felt like we were trapped in some kind of horrible Top Chef challenge.

"Tonight on Top Chef the chefs are working in teams of two to prepare a dinner party for 12. They have 6 hours, no electricity and 8 square feet of space, stay tuned for the dramatic event."

The Menu:
- A Salad of Winter Greens with Roasted Beets, Crushed Hazelnuts and a Pomegranate Balsamic Reduction with White Truffle Oil (adapted from the Millenium Cookbook)
- Spinach Garlic and Chickpea Soup
- Garlic Mashed Potatoes (made by friends, don't have the recipe details)
- Cherry and Clove Spiced Cranberries
- Homemade Chestnut Stuffing (made by friends, don't have the recipe details)
- Soy and Seitan "Turkey" with mushroom gravy
- French Vanilla Pumpkin Pie with a Ginger Praline Crust
- Apple Crisp

I am not going to try to convince any omnivores reading this entry that vegan turkey is similar or comparable to real turkey. I've been a vegan since I was a kid so I wouldn't really have any basis for comparison any way. It's a good substitute if you don't eat meat and it is tasty but meat has just never appealed to me so a vegan version of it doesn't thrill me like an amazing salad or delectable pie. We make it out of tradition but I am not trying to sell anyone on the idea of it.

This year was the first year I ever made cranberries from scratch. I don't know what took me so long. The cherries and cloves with the cranberries were amazing!!! Matt wanted to eat it all himself. I doubled the sugar that the recipe I linked called for. That is my only suggested alteration, other than maybe doubling this recipe since it's really really good.

About the pie, I am going to level with you here, I am not a huge fan of pumpkin pie. It's always been my least favorite really. This changed when I happened upon this particular pumpkin pie recipe last year though. The original recipe came from Fine Cooking Magazine and was written by Abigail Johnson Dodge. Here is my vegan version though:

Pie Crust
1-1/4 C flour
1/2 Tbs sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c soy margarine
2 Tbs cold vegetable shortening
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
3 Tbs cold water

Praline
1/2 c dark brown sugar
1 Tbs soy margarine
1 Tbs finely chopped fresh ginger


Filling
1-2/3 c canned pumpkin puree
2/3 c dark brown sugar
4 tsp flour
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp salt
6 Tbs cornstarch
3 Tbs soy milk
1 cup French Vanilla Silk Non-Dairy Creamer
1 tsp vanilla extract


Combine flour sugar and salt in a food processor, pulsing to combine. Add the bugger and shortening, pulsing until crumbs form. Tyrn the dough onto a work surface and shape into a disk. Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to one day.

Roll the dough out and line a 9" pie pan with it. Chill in the freezer for 30 minutes then bake it in the oven at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes or until the crust's edge is golden brown.

For the praline: In a bowl mix the sugar, soy butter and fresh ginger until well blended. Cumble the praline evenly over the bottom. Bake until the sides of the crust are golden and the praline is bubbling -- about 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce heat to 325 degrees F.

For the filling: In a bowl, whisk the pumpkin, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, and salt until smooth. Add the remaining filling ingredients and whisk until blended. When the praline is hardened but still warm pour the filling into the crust.

Bake for about 45 minutes and then cool on a rack. Refrigerate over night before serving.


This is what a vegan Thanksgiving platter looks like


Our friends gathered around our dining room table


Fancy Salad


Dessert!

Liquor + Cake

Cupcakes and Cocktails; it's not only adorable in its alliterative nature, these two lovelies embody some of my favorite things. They're delicious, tiny and nice to look at. The only trouble with these things is that you can only have so much of either one before you run into trouble. The only solution -- miniature cupcakes and miniature cocktails! Over the weekend I had my friends over and orchestrated a five course meal of decadence that revolved entirely around cake and booze. In order to maximize cake and liquor consumption I miniaturized both and created a tasting menu fit for a hedonist.

You can find miniature cupcake tins and miniature cupcake liners at bakery suppliers and some craft stores (Michael's carries these things). You can also find these things at stores with a large kitchen equipment department like Bed Bath and Beyond. For my party I served a drink that coordinated with each cake. In order to make the drink size appropriate for the cakes I scored some votive candle holders at Target for about 50 cents a piece that looked like oversized shot glasses.



I am going to apologize now for my laziness, I do not feel like typing up every recipe I used for my party. I made 5 kinds of cake and 5 kinds of cocktails. That's 10 recipes. If you're considering a cocktails and cupcakes party of your own there's no real need to get hung up on my recipes any way, just take away from this post the concept of a cupcakes and cocktails party and use your favorite recipes. If there's something you're really dying to know how to make I can give you details, but your favorite cupcakes will be just as good as mine I'm sure. One thing to keep in mind however is that little cupcakes bake very quickly. Most of my cakes needed only 8 minutes. Keep a very close eye on your oven.

For the first course I served chocolate cupcakes with a homemade cocoa hazelnut frosting, topped with crushed hazelnuts, chocolate dust and a raspberry for a pop of tartness. I paired this cake with Kahlua and cream. (Vegans: I used soy creamer so if you are also a vegan, that is the ingredient I recommend.)



Next up: Berries and cream layer cake with champagne frosting. I replaced the liquid content of a buttercream frosting recipe with bubbly. Then I baked 24 mini mixed berry cupcakes and stacked them in 2 layer cakes (gluing them together with frosting). I topped each cake with a generous amount of frosting and a sliced strawberry. I served this cake with a mixed drink consisting of equal parts champagne, Stoli Raspberry and raspberry schnapps.



After the berry cakes, I served cherry cordial cupcakes with apricot hot toddies. My cupcakes were chocolate with a cream and cherry center. I topped each cake with chocolate ganache and a cherry from a jar of cherry pie filling. I made my hot toddies with apricot brandy flavored black tea, lemon juice, honey (vegans: use agave) and a shot of brandy.



Following the cordials came the tiramisu and coffee. I made the tiramisu using the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World recipe and I served with with a coffee cocktail that consisted of cream, coffee, Stoli Vanilla, and Amaretto.



I capped off the meal with chai tea cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream frosting and a dusting of cinnamon. I served these cakes with an apple cider and spiced rum cocktail.

Curry and Cupcakes

I pretty much followed this recipe for dinner tonight, except that I was out of tofu so I used some Morning Star Farms vegetarian steak strips instead of tofu.



I also made the Dulce Sin Leche cupcakes from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook. They were sweet, moist and delicious -- a big hit with our friends.

The Taste of Summer

Matt and I had the perfect summer meal planned -- veggie burgers and these awesome watermelon cups. We were enticed by the veggie burger on the cover of the July/August Vegetarian Times and we set to work on that. Unfortunately, the recipe, as printed in the magazine, does not work. You cannot form solid patties based on their recipe and our attempts to do so quickly fell apart -- literally. If you are considering attempting these "Hot Tamale Burgers" you are going to want to put the ingredients in the food processor with some cornstarch, refrigerate, and then form patties which you will need to fry in a pan with some cooking oil. If you go this route you will get some pretty good burgers.



As for the watermelon cups, I pretty much followed their recipe. I used vegan sour cream and I used vegan feta (made with the recipe in the Uncheese Cookbook).



I had lots of left over watermelon so I made some watermelon granita which turned out really well.



Any way, now I have lots of left over vegan feta and no idea what to do with it. What should I do with this feta?

Mushroom Stacks and Cheesecake Strawberries

We tried out this mushroom stack recipe for dinner tonight and it was fantastic. We could not get the porcinis that the recipe called for but we found some mid sized portobellos that worked out nicely. We had to buy scotch just for this dish. It certainly made things tasty but scotch is awfully expensive and neither of us drinks it so now we need more recipes that involve cooking with it.



For dessert I worked up a new creation, cheesecake strawberries. No not stawberry cheesecakes but cheesecake strawberries. This recipe is quick, easy, looks nice and doesn't involve one bit of baking. It also allows the berries to take center stage, instead of just the accent role they usually get with cheesecake.

For this recipe you need:
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
8 oz cream cheese (I used vegan cream cheese, I am sure the regular variety will also work just as well)
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
About 20 medium strawberries, washed and cored (If you can get the luxurious, giant, long-stemmed variety those would be nice, but they are not necessary. If you go that route you probably will need fewer berries)

First create your filling by combining the sugar and cream cheese in a medium bowl. Beat until smooth with an electric mixer. Stir in the cookie crumbs. Allow your filling to cool in the fridge for a bit while you gather your cake decorating gear. You will want to use a pastry bag with a star tip. (If you do not have this you can probably spoon your filling into your berries but it will not look as nice.) Fill your pastry bag with chilled filling and pipe some filling into the hollowed out center of your berries. Chill the berries until you are ready to serve them.

Dinner Party

We like to throw fancy dinner parties because it's an excuse to use our fancy entertaining gear and cook up elaborate meals. We also get to use our beautiful giant dining room table that seats up to ten.



For our first course we served roasted tomatoes over a bed of baby greens with home made croutons, fresh basil and braised garlic in a Zinfandel vinaigrette. The salad looked beautiful and had a refreshing, crisp, slightly tart flavor.



For the salad I got to use my new "ring mold." You will notice that in upscale eateries food is often arranged in a perfect cylindrical mound. They accomplish this with the use of a mold. You probably need a specialty cooking store to get one so I sort of made my own by cutting the top and bottom off of a clean empty water bottle. It worked out very nicely.

For our main course we served a rich and robust Chianti "Beef". I used this recipe but replaced the mutton with Morningstar Farms veggie steak strips. All of my omnivore dinner guests raved about the meal so I guess that is an endorsement for the substitution from an unbiased source.



For dessert I served white chocolate brownies with green tea cheesecake swirls. To make the brownies vegan I made my own white chocolate and used earth balance margarine instead of butter. I replaced the eggs with 2 Tbs cornstarch and 2 Tbs soy milk for every 1 egg. I also used vegan cream cheese. My white chocolate loving company really enjoyed these.

I also made Napoleons which were delicious and beautiful. Recipe follows...



Cake:
3/4 c sifted white flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
2 Tbs cornstarch
1/4 c soy margarine
1/2 c sugar
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c soy milk + 2 Tbs

Preheat oven to 400 F. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cornstarch. beat in butter using an electric mixer on low speed. Then beat in the sugar, vanilla and soy milk. Lightly oil a muffin pan and fill each muffin cup about 1/3 of the way with batter. (You will get about 12 cups filled) Bake your cakes for about 12 minutes or until inserting a toothpick in the center comes out dry. Once they come out of the oven allow them to cool.

While your cakes bake and cool prepare your chocolate ganache frosting and strawberry sauce. For strawberry sauce combine 1 cup fresh strawberries with 2 1/2 Tbs sugar and 1/2 tsp lemon juice in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. For the chocolate combine 2 Tbs soy margarine, 3/4 cup vegan dark chocolate, 1/4 cup + 2 Tbs vegan heavy cream (I use Alpro Soya Creamer), 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Place all ingredients except vanilla in a sauce pan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla.

Turn cooled cupcakes out onto a cutting board. Slice the rounded tops off of each cake. Take 1 cake a spread strawberry sauce on top of it, top that cake with another cake and then cover the whole thing with the chocolate ganache frosting. Garnish with crushed hazelnuts, sliced strawberries and small dark chocolate wedges. You should end up with 6 mini layer cakes. I serve mine with a swirl of strawberry sauce.

Snickerdoodles

These cookies are probably my signature cookie. Every where they go they get rave reviews and requests for the recipe. The original recipe wasn't vegan and came from some place online (I cannot remember where). I modified the recipe I found and here is how I make my cookies:

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup soy margarine (softened)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
cinnamon sugar

In a mixer bowl, cream together sugar and butter. Add in the cornstarch and vanilla. Slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing well. Roll the dough into 3/4" balls and roll each ball into the cinnamon sugar, coating all sides. Set the cookies 1" apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 F for about 10 minutes or until edges are slightly browned.

Vegan Tiramisu

For weeks I obsessed about vegan tiramisu. I'd tried vegan recipes in the past and came up with nothing good. This last time I was determined. Now there is a recipe floating around online for vegan tiramisu already and I gave that a shot first but here is what happened:
- the sponge cake came out kind of bitter and crumbly, even though it cooled a long time, cutting it caused it to break up.
- the "mascarpone" came out really runny.

So I tweaked that recipe and combined it with some other recipes and here is my successful version of vegan tiramisu. First make all the components of the recipe as follows.

Sponge Cake:
(Based on recipe I found online by Candace Naomi Sakuda)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 1/3 cups water

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth and free of lumps. Pour batter into a greased 9 inch pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool complete and then slice it into lady finger shaped strips. Put the strips on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 18 minutes.

"Mascarpone"
8 oz Soy Cream Cheese (I used toffuti's vegan cream cheese)
1/4 cup soy sour cream (I used toffuti's vegan sour cream)
1/4 cup vegan cream (you can try silk coffee creamer but I used Alpro Soya Heavy Cream which you can buy here)
2 tablespoons Amaretto
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon agar (this is a vegan gelatine, I found some at a Korean grocery near my house but if you do not have that kind of thing near you you may have to buy some online)

Bring heavy cream to a boil in a small sauce pan and then dissolve the agar into it and allow it to cool to room temperature. Combine the cream/agar mix with all the other ingredients above and beat well. Put the mix in the fridge to set for several hours.

Coffee/Liquor Dip
1 cup expresso
3 tablespoons amaretto
3 tablespoons sugar

Combine these ingredients and put in the fridge to cool.

Topping
1 high quality dark chocolate bar, grated (store in the refrigerator)

To assemble the dessert dip the "lady fingers" you made into the coffee dip and lay them in a large deep dish. Pour the "mascarpone" over top of the cake. Sprinkel the "mascarpone" with the grated chocolate and then chill the entire dish in the refrigerator for an hour or until you are ready to serve.